The Obama campaign released a new ad featuring Lilly Ledbetter, who found out only on the verge of retirement that she’d been making 40% less than the men at her plant while doing the same job for years. This is a wonderful ad, mostly because Lilly is as fantastic and down-to-earth in it as she is in person.

Lilly is fairly blunt:

I worked at this plant for 20yrs before I learned the truth. I’d been paid 40% less than men doing the same work.

John McCain opposed a law to give women equal pay for equal work. And he dismissed the wage gap saying women just need education and training.

I had the same skills as the men at my plant. My family needed that money. On the economy, it’s John McCain who needs and education….

Even worse for all of us, the Ledbetter decision has now been cited in hundreds of cases nationwide to justify disparate treatment based on race, gender, age, disability and other reasons to pay someone less or treat them differently because these cases have been jimmied into an analogous argument to what Lilly faced in her claim. The SCOTUS decision effectively undercut decades of precedent on equality in one, fell swoop in favor of companies who want to justify internal discrimination.

Lilly’s absolutely right: McCain needs to be educated on just what women think of being treated as second class simply because they are women. Just because we have boobs doesn’t mean we have to vote for one, now does it?

I got to meet Lilly very briefly when we were in Denver — she spoke at the panel I did with Pam Spaulding and Nan Aron from Alliance for Justice. Lilly reminds me so much of so many of the women in my family — spine of steel, but a total sweetheart, who is heartbroken over how she was treated and mad as hell at the same time, and who can blame her? Having worked at many a job where women weren’t exactly the powerbrokers for the most part, clawing your way in the door can be tough enough — but to have that crap treatment extend to the whole of your retirement, too, is beyond infuriating.

Goodyear ought to be ashamed, if they had any shame left. Let alone the SCOTUS, especially Anthony Kennedy who knew better but went along with the pro-corporate ride on something this fundamental.

I thought that ad was really effective. Especially if you happen to be a woman who has ever had to work your way up in a predominantly male job environment — or if you’ve ever had to deal with unequal treatment on crap grounds, etc. — it really resonates.

Yes, I’m sure it does pain him to have to put his hand out while not admitting any role in the crapfest that he and his other CEO pals have created with their excessive greed-fueled wankfest. Any thought that keying all of their actions toward maximizing shareholder profit rather than behaving in a prudent, long-term thought for business and consumer health just goes shit out the window in that context, and when you add in deregulation out the wazoo for hoovering up even more short-term gains? Any wonder why we are in a world of crap?

God forbid there should be reforms of any sort designed to prevent this from happening repeatedly like some sort of Groundhog Day for the stupids. Let’s just pour money on the fire and watch it burn…

i’ve never worked anywhere except male dominated fields. but campaign advertisements might as well as be advertisements selling laundry soap – unless it ties strongly into some action the politician has been championing (like al gore on the climate).

That may be true for people who pay attention to the finer details, but that’s a very tiny percentage of people in this country, sad to say. For the rest of the world who looks solely at superficial bits and pieces or feels things in their gut? I think this ad is a good one in terms of resonance.

Especially given the fact that John McCain’s entire record on women’s issues can be summed up with “why the hell should I care?”

Inspired by Gandhi, it empowers poor women to improve the quality of their lives. The students are mostly women. Some are grandmothers. Hundreds have come through here from villages across India and a dozen other countries to learn how to install and maintain solar energy in rural areas.

Thank you for posting this. I watched a PETA video a year ago, and have not bought one bit of factory farmed, mass produced meat since. Horrifying as it is to see, I think everyone should see it, and realize what it is they are reaching for in the supermarket.

It is just – sickening cruelty. Makes you wonder about the human race, doesn’t it?

Sen Kyl just said that the Democrats blocked the bills about regulations in Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac since 2002.
Why didn’t Sen. Schumer shoot this down by saying that the republicans have held the presidency, the house and the senate since 2000 and the democrats just took power in 2006.

“Lilly’s absolutely right: McCain needs to be educated on just what women think of being treated as second class simply because they are women.”

And if there are any remaining Hillary supporters who still plan to vote for McCain, they really need to stop and reconsider. This issued combined with McCain/Palin’s opposition to abortion rights should compel them to vote for Obama.

wait till you get a load of Bloomberg saying that American consumers were irresponsible for having bought into the crap (aka “lies”) that the market was selling them, and equally responsible for the shit we’re in.

(still waiting for the first non-ass-wipe to show up on my teevee today)…..

Boner on Disney tee vee says they already passed a $300,000,000,000 (three hundred billion) Housing Bill to pay off scam artists last year. I did not know that. Boner says it is not a time to scare people. But he is definitely scary.

I know FDL discourages violence. But I think we should get the torches and pitchforks and storm Wall Street.

Sadly: it’s that whole attitude we see witht the likes of Sarah Palin – nothing matters except humans. Every other living creature on this planet is here for us to do – whatever with. We spend – millions? – searching for possibility of life on other planets. Why? So we can torture them?

The central message we should be putting out I think is that Paulson wants this $700 billion, not to stabilize financial markets, but to bailout the system which he helped create and which produced the current crisis.

Just as I think putting Paulson in charge of this is about the worst possible choice that could be made I heard on MTP that he will farm this bailout to private industry and put precisely those fund managers who brought us this mess in charge of managing various multi-billion pieces of the securities he means to buy up.

Lastly, I would just like to point out that Paulson has been Teasury Secretary for 2 years. He did nothing to ease the bursting of the bubble and once burst did as little as possible to deal with it until the last 2 weeks. Now we are being told we must rush, rush, rush to get something in place because we don’t have the time. My question is why didn’t he do something in those first two years. The Patriot Act, the Patriot Act extension, the AUMFs, the Military Commissions Act, the Protect America Act, the FISA Amendments Act, over and over and over again the Congress gets rolled by this Administration that does nothing and then wants some massive or unthought through legislation passed yesterday because there is no time. And Democrats never learn or are complicit. At what point do we say that bad as the Republicans are the Democrats really are no better?

Isn’t that the way the Shock Doctrine is supposed to work? Create the shock, even after it’s obvious, let it fester until it’s a falling over the cliff emergency, then come in with a rush rush plan that benefits yourself.

Paulson said Sunday that because financial markets remain under severe stress there is an urgent need for Congress to act quickly without adding other measures that could slow down passage.

“We need this to be clean and to be quick,” Paulson said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”

“The sky is falling. The sky is falling. Give me what I asked for quickly, or we’ll all perish. Give me what I want quickly, and we’ll all be safe, and you can go on your break with peace of mind knowing that you’ve done the right thing.”

Now that I am a register independent, I feel unshacked and lack the NEED nor necessity to defend any one politican. What I glorious feeling. I highly recommend it to all my fellow Americans.

The politicans have been very clever in piting us (the american people who make this country what it is by working and makiing actual stuff and fighting in wars to give people the opportunity to work and making actual stuff) against each other in this endless democrats are better than republicans or republicans are better than democrats CRAP.

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain all took money from the brokerage houses and Fannie Mae PERIOD. The only one has not YET is Sara Palin but given enough time in the DC circuit she will as well-it is how it is played. BUT we as American people don’t get to play that game…do we? So why are we so ready to defend to the death (or word wars) any one particular politican.

Look, basically this whole financial horrenous mess is because mortgage companies (original lender) who made the mortgages had no vested interest in making sure the person borrowing the money could pay it back. Why? because the original lender (see Country wide) sold the mortgage and got the blessing of the debt rating companies who are played by the broker firms. What a mess! But who was supposed to look out for the american people interest? Who was supposed to make sure the banks (original lender) was making sure people could afford the mortgage–the house and senate banking committees But wait Dodd is getting campaign contributes from those same people and OH wait he is getting friends of Countywide CEO low interest and no (see Rangel )interest loans…WHAT A MESS!

But, but wait the democrats have been in office only since 2006 and they have this real skinny majority and the crsis has been brewing since 2000 and the sun doesn’t shine and I broke my nai typing this WAAAAAAAAA!
Okay, when the demo were powerless while the repubs screwed us over – did the demos offer any legislation? Did the demos see this coming and tried to stop it? Eventhough the Demos were not in power, they were not powerless, no? The reason why the republicans did this and the demos acquisenced is because they BOTH were being brought off by Fannine Mae and the brokeage house selling fannies Mortgage backed securities (MDA) That means securities traded and used as collateral based on NOTHIHNG but the originals lenders INVESTED interest in making money of selling loans not keeping them.

This post defending the “democratics” and knocking the “republicans” on equal pay is like rearranging the deck chairs on the titantic—it doesn’t matter….it really doesn’t.

This is what I am doing. I am voting based on the politican with the LEAST NEGATIVES. I suggest you do the same.

Could someone please define illiquid assets? Is this the goodwill that some now defunct company had booked; is it the property in the inner city that has been converted to meth labs and/or vandalyzed; is it the start up capital for some hairbrain scheme? And were going to get a return on this shit?

Isn’t that the way the Shock Doctrine is supposed to work? Create the shock, even after it’s obvious, let it fester until it’s a falling over the cliff emergency, then come in with a rush rush plan that benefits yourself.

exactly. and this is the kind of thing i’m hearing this morning: “we must do something, if we do nothing disaster looms.” and the only thing on the table is paulson’s blank check.

Isn’t that the way the Shock Doctrine is supposed to work? Create the shock, even after it’s obvious, let it fester until it’s a falling over the cliff emergency, then come in with a rush rush plan that benefits yourself.

Absolutely. And it has been used this way since 2001. So after 7 years of seeing the Democrats being part of the Shock Doctrine, I really have question the whole idea that they are out there fighting the good fight for us. Because if they are fighting for us, why is it they always end up voting with them, the Republicans? Why is it that Democratic filibusters never happened? Why is it that both in the minority and the majority Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid facilitated Republican bills and structured cosmetic votes that saw Republican legislation passed? At what point do we cut the crap about electing more and better Democrats and hold the ones we have accountable?

Mortgages that are underwater were the beginning of the illiquidity. But it got even worse because during the securitization process, mortgages got sold in tranches, the least credit worthy of which still got a triple-A rating (”people don’t default on their mortgages,” so the excuse went). The “investors” who bought those tranches then leveraged them. That’s how the freeze up began. But then there were plenty of other schenanigans that no one was paying attention to. So no one really knows what anything is worth, as a consequence financial institutions can’t fund themselves and the whole system is frozen.

Many more of the “assets” the taxpayers will acquire will turn out to be worthless. Unlike the S&L bailout when the taxpayer acquired reall estate that had some value & was all eventually sold, making the taxpayer hit less than originally feared.

Ditto. I agree with the description of the economic discussion on MTP as garbage too. Bear in mind these are the same dopes who never saw the bubble, never thought it would burst, thought that all our problems with it afer it burst were over last year, thought there wouldn’t be a recession, etc. So of course these are NBC’s and Tom Brokaw’s go to guys to get the real story on what will happen. Only in the MSM is being wrong all the time an asset and makes you a bona fide expert.

So after 7 years of seeing the Democrats being part of the Shock Doctrine

it hasn’t been just 7 years – and this is the point that people like naomi klein and those in the anti-corporate globalization movement have been trying to tell us. all through the ’90s (and long before, but perfected in the ’90s) this was perfected in our foreign policy via the IMF and WTO. when the seattle wto protests happened in ‘99, much of latin america’s reaction was something like “finally!”

one of the differences that we’re seeing now is that these policies are being brought home – not that they are new to the past 7 years.

I really have question the whole idea that they are out there fighting the good fight for us. Because if they are fighting for us, why is it they always end up voting with them, the Republicans? Why is it that Democratic filibusters never happened? Why is it that both in the minority and the majority Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid facilitated Republican bills and structured cosmetic votes that saw Republican legislation passed? At what point do we cut the crap about electing more and better Democrats and hold the ones we have accountable?

Any asset that you can’t sell for cash is illiquid. On the upside of the bubble there was always some dope, i.e. a greater fool, who would buy your crap mortgage securities so they were liquid. But after the bubble burst, i.e. no greater fools could be found, nobody wanted them. So at this point they became illiquid because you couldn’t sell them for cash. Paulson solved this problem by making the government and American taxpayers the last and greatest fool, i.e. the buyer of crap of last resort.

Hugh and Selise
This is certainly the way to go. The ones we don’t hold accountable will be the ones leading the newly elected “better” Dems and that might not be a good thing. I think we should push hard every day starting now – or 8 years ago.

Morning Folks, diving into a lake full of upset this morning. God, you don’t know which way to turn — we are being attacked on all sides here. Not sure what to do first. Last night, I emailed and faxed Schumer, Clinton, Dodd and my Rep. about the Paulson plan and emailed everyone on my email address book to get out there and do the same. Got an email from someone talking about how she and all of her friends are talking about Canada..I told her to quit that crazy talk — we need fighters HERE, NOW.

Why is it that both in the minority and the majority Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid facilitated Republican bills and structured cosmetic votes that saw Republican legislation passed? At what point do we cut the crap about electing more and better Democrats and hold the ones we have accountable?

Agreed. But the only way I know for an average citizen to hold a politician accountable is to “throw the rascal out,” and I’m not the averse to replacing an incumbent bad Democrat with an equally bad Republican, if that’s the only viable option. Vote against incumbents unless they are doing a good job.

OMG. What are we coming to?! I want them marched through the decontamination tub before they’ll be accepted in this house.
I gots me scruples left, though not much else, thanks to the likes a them scumbees.

The ones we don’t hold accountable will be the ones leading the newly elected “better” Dems and that might not be a good thing.

no, because unaccountable dems will not be good for the party – they will crash and burn. and then where will we be? with the american public convinced that the dems can’t be trusted? and they might as well take another gamble with the republicans?

I concede that the Shock Doctrine has been going on longer than the current Administration but it has taken it to a whole new level. If you look at the scam of the Social Security surpluses, that will cost trillions too but it was spread over 35 years. The Bush tax cuts (10 years), the Iraq war and GWOT (7 years), the housing bubble (~5 years), the oil bubble (~5 years), each of these will cost at least a trillion and has been accomplished in only a fraction of the time. It is the number and size of them condensed into much shorter timeframes which is so amazing and discouraging.

I’m not the averse to replacing an incumbent bad Democrat with an equally bad Republican, if that’s the only viable

It seems to me the flaw in that thinking is that even a bad Dem contributes to creating a majority that can mean the difference between whose agenda gets attention, and who gets to gerrymander, and who gets to fill the Chair positions of committees (again, agenda setting).

Haven’t read all the above comments yet . . . so maybe this has been covered. Nevertheless, here goes–hypothetically speaking, with Supreme Court decision as underpinning.

Could corporations, municipalities, NGO’s, small businesses–anyone who employees women successfully push through a 40% pay CUT for all women? If the mayor of my small town–a woman–earns $30K a year–and the commissioners who determine salaries decide to cut back, they could pay her $21K or thereabouts, thereby saving the city $9K. They would know (or at least assume) that if she fought back with a lawsuit, her success or lack thereof would be based solely on the timeliness of her lawsuit and the cleverness of her lawyer. Wow, if women’s workforce salaries could all be reduced by 30-40%–with no bad consequences, what a boondoggle for the economy!

As they sink with the anchor they have forged, the aristocrats are saying we must take on that anchor (give them $700 billion) or there will be no money for small business loans and etc. My question is –

Why don’t we ignore those silly people, keep the $700 billion for ourselves and put that money into newly-created, regulated entities — we could call them community banks or something — and make it available to the economy?

for the usa – imo, you are absolutely right. and just to be clear, i wasn’t paying attention in the ’90s and had no idea what was going on. it was only by getting involved in anti-war organizing in 2002 that i met a bunch of people who had been paying attention and active during the ’80s and ’90s. during the ’90s, much of the focus was on what they called the economic shock therapy imposed by the usa on other countries. i fear now, especially with bushco, it is all being brought home to us.

warning to all crooked financial gurus, i’m keeping my victory garden in production year round as of now (yes, it can be done in north OH winter), and i am saving the overripe tomatoes for a special occasion of my own choosing.

Well, I can think of several reasons why little Georgie Won’t would notice. He’s not as blame-plagued-stoopid as he plays on tv. But if you can actually stand watching him, try going for the gold standard and watch David Brooks on Lehrer. Causes a grease fire in my kitchen every time I see him.
Dangdest thing!

As they sink with the anchor they have forged, the aristocrats are saying we must take on that anchor (give them $700 billion) or there will be no money for small business loans and etc

They have trotted out the line with each new injection of liquidity (cash) in markets that this would loosen up lending and allow homebuyers to take out mortgages again and for routine business lending to occur. But time and again we have seen that this does not happen. As the end of the week spike in oil prices showed, the big boys grab the money and start speculating with it like they always do.

Can’t we find *someone* to pretend to be a Democrat spokesperson other than Donna Brazile? Like, say, any front-pager, or commenter, from right here?

I draw the line at Carville, but yeah, agreed! We don’t need a puppy personality that rolls over to have its tummy scratched at the slightest opportunity. Donna seems like a nice lady: too nice, and too much of a lady.

Goolsby & Holtz-Eakin having a slapping match on Blitzer. Goolsby got last good work in: Details of McCain’s emergency plan in his website are literally 10 sentences long. Frankly, you get more details on a box of Fruit Loops.

I didn’t mean to be flip earlier, but that’s how I see it. Totally agreed, at least until we truly control the show. Until then, I’m voting straight party ticket.

That doesn’t mean I won’t work like a demon during the primaries but, for the general, we HAVE to get Dem. party in control. THEN hound the daylights out of the slaggards and weed them out if and as needed.

SCOTUS has delt the middle class a major blow against the middle class with the Ledbetter decision!!
Big business won again and again under rethuglians/SCOTUS. Unions have been busted leaving workers no voice in the employment which now is completely one sided in favor of big business. Ya a vote for them is a vote to make the rich richer and drive the middle class out of existence as they die off for a lack of proper medical care . We need more and more laws against unions and for business so they can do the job even quicker… Who needs the middle class?? They are just 90% of the US population they should have no voice what ever in their behalf! /S

Fundamental tension between democracy & capitalism. In former, one person one vote; in latter, one dollar one vote. Since the Rs got the workers to vote on basis of noneconomic issues, the whole country gets run on the basis of money interests.

Since this is your field would you please explain something to me. If the extremely rich destroy the middle class who is going to buy the products that the rich make or sell? If you destroy the economy won’t it at some point get the rich as well? I just don’t understand the logic of wiping out the people who buy your widgets.

That’s one of the Qs of all time. Back in the first phase of the early 90s recovery, when corps were laying off workers for a much longer than normal time, I referred to it as firing your customers, since workers are also consumers. As it turned out, verrry easy monetary policy got those still employed to buy enough more to keep the thing going until layoffs stopped and the recovery was cemented.

Growth in real wages/worker should be the healthy underpinning of overall economic growth. But that hasn’t happened (except for a brief spurt during the Clinton admin) since the 1960s. Consumer spending growth has been held up by greater percentage of people working, workers doing longer hours, and BORROWING. I think, via tax cuts and even easier monetary policy, they can gin up another recovery. It will take awhile & it will be weak, but think they can do it one more time.

Macroeconomic managers do not realize the thin reed that holds up econ growth. They observe, accurately, that consumers are fundamentally insatiable, and will increase spending at the slightest excuse. What they don’t observe is that the consumer “fundamentals” get worse & worse with each cycle. So they think they can continue to have redos.

I’ve been watching this carefully as each cycle has unfolded in its own particular way.

Twain, to your 24 on prior thread, remember that the key is to get real wages/worker growing. I just don’t see how that is going to happen. Business has figured out that it doesn’t need to do that and in pursuit of lower labor costs (something like 70% of total net business costs) has not only outsourced, etc., but has done its best to eviscerate labor unions.

So yeah, you can have another, maybe two other, maybe three, government programs, but if real wages don’t start growing endogenously, the economy can’t be sustained.

Oh, someone FZ just brought up technology as a source of growth. As far as that can underpin consumer spending it only works if it adds jobs and/or makes products so much cheaper that real wages rise. That was the Clinton “new economy” era. W came in & put energy, metals, paper & RRs into the cabinet. It was a really dramatic switch from new back to old economy.

Not sure we can do the tech thing again, as developing economies siphon off those jobs pretty quickly these days.

If I remember correctly I think I read that wages are actually going backwards in terms of what can be purchased now. I have a mind that is totally practical and cannot think “outside the box.” People tell me I am a typical Virgo. No artistic talent (re the other thread) no magical thinking and wouldn’t have any notion of how to flim-flam somone if my life depended on it. So I am at a complete loss re the idea of the rich have all the money and then what? You can’t drive it, live in it or eat it.

Think about slave economies like antebellum South. Not that we’ll get that bad any time soon, but you have a picture of how economies which have extreme income distributions can still function. After all, us slaves must still work, even for lower & lower real wages, because the other alternative is death. We have pretty much lost the ability to strike, and I have not been impressed by the influence of protests.

W certainly touched an American hot button when he told us to go shopping after 9/11. Americans will buy anything and shop to make themselves feel good. We need to stop doing that – especially at Wal-Mart.